The Lady Bisons had fun in the Hawaiian sun, but while their results weren't all that bright on the basketball court they did make a strong impression on the teams participating in the tournament.

Sunday afternoon in Honolulu the Lady Bisons closed out their three-game run in the Rainbow Wahine Classic hosted by the University of Hawaii with a 76-55 loss to the University of Kentucky from the Southeastern Conference.

"Our intensity level, our tenacity and our execution were much better against UAB (Saturday) and Kentucky," Lipscomb coach Frank Bennett said. "We were playing a stronger and more athletic team in Kentucky, but we were only six down with eight-and-half minutes left to play. The game was closer than the score indicates.

"If we had played that well against Hawaii we would have probably beaten them. Everybody told us we should do well in our conference this season based on the effort we gave here."

Kentucky hit the first shot of the game, a jumper shot in the lane by Amani Franklin and never trailed.

With 11:45 left to play in the firt half the Lady Bisons pulled with one of Kentucky at 11-10 on a jumper in the paint by freshman forward Valerie Bronson. She was fouled on the play and hit her free throw attempt, tying the game at 11-11.

Kentucky then opened up the game going on a 9-0 run to lead 20-11 with 7:02 left before intermission.

At the half Kentucky led 34-25.

In the second half the Lady Bisons pulled within four points of Kentucky (43-39) on a jump shot in the lane by forward Miriam McAlister with 13:26 left to play.

"We were able to adjust a lot," Bennett said. "We got consistent play off of our bench. We made four or five turnovers at the start of the second half and that put us in a hole."

With 8:31 left on the clock the Lady Bisons fought to cut the Kentucky lead to six (53-47) on a pair of free throws by freshman forward Cree Nix.

Senior guard Catie Woods was the only Lady Bisons player in double figures with 10 points. McAlister and Katie Rollins each had nine.

McAlister and Nix grabbed five rebounds apiece for the Lady Bisons.

The Lady Bisons hit 13-of-47 field goal attempts, 27.7 percent. Kentucky connected on 27-of-61 shots from the field (44.3 percent)

"We're not shooting as well as would like," Bennett said. "We have to work harder on that."

Sarah Elliott led Kentucky in scoring with a game-high23 points. Samantha Mahoney chipped in with 12, with half of her points coming from the free throw line.

Elliott recorded a double-double. She also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.